India, Aug. 15 -- Never ask a woman her age, goes the adage. But Lucknow-based Vijay Kumari, wife of a decorated retired Army veteran, never seems to mind the query. And for a good reason.

"My age is the same as that of my country," she says, breaking into a giggle as she forwarded her Aadhaar ID as proof of her birthday.

"I was born at the stroke of the midnight hour in Varanasi, when India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the Indian tricolour, signalling the end of the British colonial rule, and made his famous 'tryst with destiny' speech," she told PTI.

Wife of Major Dhirendra Nath Singh of the Kumaon Regiment, an awardee of the Vir Chakra, the country's third-highest wartime gallantry award, for the 1965 India-Pakist...